Music and people hold my life together. I describe experiences, discoveries and insights, often connected with music and with teaching and playing piano. The blog is a way to stay in touch with friends, and may also be food for thought for anyone else, especially people connected with music and the piano/
Musik und Menschen halten mein Leben zusammen. Ich beschreibe Erfahrungen, Entdeckungen und Einsichten, oft in Zusammenhang mit dem Klavierspiel und dem Klavierunterricht.

Monday, June 9, 2014

It’s about 3:40, and the community piano recital is well on its way. I’m sitting in the back of the hall by the door, to distribute programs and usher in late comers. The door opens, a man comes in with a teenage student. She looks like she might be one of the performers, who were still missing when we started shortly after 3 pm.

I get up and approach the girl: “Hi, are you one of the performers?,” I whisper. She nods. “There’s a seat up front for you. It has a program with your name on it, you’ll find it easily.” She walks to the front, and the man who is with her comments on the score she holds in her hands: “It’s simply not working from memory. She’ll just put the music flat on the music stand.”

“Oh, ok,” I say. I have no idea who the man is, the father, the teacher... ? At the piano the program continues, and this is clearly not the moment for a discussion.

Playing from memory is one of the rules for participating in the community recital. It is a joint recital for piano students who live in the community. It was initiated by local piano teachers, and each teacher can send up to five students. All students have to audition in advance, and there’s a mandatory rehearsal at the venue two days before the event.

She must have performed from memory when she auditioned, I think. I wonder what happened. Everybody who’s ever performed knows about last minute panic, and the girl has my heartfelt sympathies. Briefly, the thought strikes me whether playing with the music is ok with the chairperson and the other teachers. And how will it come across to the other students, who have all memorized their music?

The girl’s turn comes. She puts up the music stand, and plays from the score. She plays beautifully, very expressive, her performance is one of the best in the program.

After the recital, I join some of my colleagues, who are supervising procedures at the snack table, while listening to someone elaborate about the irrationality of requiring students to play from memory. Recitals like this should be about sharing beautiful music, not about playing from memory. Even professional pianists increasingly use the score these days. He’s a professional musician himself, plays in an orchestra, and just last night the pianist performed the Poulenc concerto with the music. I finally recognize the speaker as the father of the student, who used the score in the recital.

It’s a controversial issue. Arguments go this way and that. We teachers agree that there is no point in trying to force students to play from memory, and we don’t do it in our studios. We all look a bit defensive and uncomfortable.

The issue that’s really at stake here doesn’t hit me until later. This is not about playing from memory or not, this is about playing by the rules. The people in charge may decide to change them. Until that happens, though, they’re in effect, and participating performers must be expected to respect them.